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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23179006">Employee Engagement</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celia_and/pseuds/Celia_and'>Celia_and</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Awkward Ben Solo, Ben is desperately eager to please and just the absolute sweetest, Employee surveys, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Sassy Rey (Star Wars), Sweet Ben Solo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:41:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,122</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23179006</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celia_and/pseuds/Celia_and</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The HR survey that Rey takes actually seems more like a list of first date questions.</p><p>Ben Solo works in HR.</p><p>Coincidence? ...Maybe.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>82</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>929</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Employee Engagement</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/katieitsmee/gifts">katieitsmee</a>.</li>

        <li>
          Translation into Русский available: 
            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23319082">Мотивация персонала</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elafira/pseuds/Elafira">Elafira</a>
        </li>


    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Just a little story I wrote on Twitter based on a <a href="https://twitter.com/katieitsmee/status/1235692920826707968">real workplace survey</a>!</p><p>If you're reading on a phone, please turn it sideways to read the survey screenshots.</p><p>Katie, dear, you are the absolute best and I love you forever! 🤗💛</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>Rey doesn’t think it’s just her imagination that Ben Solo is smiling a lot more, lately. Whenever they run into each other in the break room or he stops by her cubicle to ask for help with the eternally glitchy HR database, he seems to make it a point to smile. Often.</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">It’s still jarring, seeing a smile on that preternaturally pensive face. It’s not too shabby without a smile: the strong jaw, the plush lips, the soulful eyes. But with a smile is a whole other thing entirely. His eyes light up in an awkwardly, hesitantly eager way. It’s...nice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She mentions it to Finn one day. “So Ben seems happier lately, huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Ben who?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Ben. HR Ben.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><em>“Happy?”</em> he scoffs skeptically. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happy in the whole entire course of my existence.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“The smiling didn’t tip you off?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“I’m concerned about you, Rey.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“What? Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He lays the back of his hand on her forehead, checking for a fever. “A hallucination of HR Ben smiling seems like a very odd presentation of a brain tumor.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She guffaws, swats his hand away, pokes him in the side for good measure, and reluctantly wraps up her twenty-six-minute afternoon coffee break.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She watches Ben even more closely after that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She’s not crazy. She doesn’t have a brain tumor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He’s <em>definitely</em> smiling.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">They have a common enemy: the accursed, outdated HR database that the company in its infinite penny-pinching wisdom has decided to use until it’s entirely obsolete. Which milestone came and went three months ago, but Rey keeps patching it up to limp along a while longer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She’s just scored a major victory—a patchwork fix that might hold a whole <em>week</em>—and goes to share her triumph with Ben.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“That’s great, Rey!” he exclaims. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles, am I right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">It could be a reference to something, maybe? But Ben is exactly eccentrically erudite enough that that might just be how he thinks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">So she answers, “Heck yes, that’s true!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He smiles his biggest smile yet.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Finn takes to reading world news, and a week in, he’s decided it’s his civic duty to pass on his newfound and infinite wisdom to Rey and Poe. In the break room at lunch one day he’s holding forth passionately on the subject of Myanmar. His explanations are at times contradictory and he doesn’t seem to have a particularly firm grasp on dates or geography, but Rey and Poe are engrossed. They don’t even notice the presence of another coworker until Rey hears a murmured “Mm hmm” of agreement behind her.<br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She turns in her chair and sees Ben holding his brown paper bag lunch. He never eats in the break room, he always takes his lunch from the fridge straight back to his desk, so this is unprecedented. Finn stops his recitation, and Poe turns to look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">With three pairs of surprised eyes on him, Ben turns slightly red but holds his ground. “I agree, widespread extermination of native peoples, that is to say, genocide...is bad.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">They all three just stare at him for a minute.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Rey finally scrapes her thoughts together enough to respond, “Absolutely, Ben.”</span>
</p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">After the initial shock, Finn is delighted to have found a kindred world-news spirit and adds, “Preach!” </span> <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Poe hums in decided agreement.</span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Ben doesn’t smile—the occasion is far too solemn—but he does give a little nod before he leaves. Holding the brown paper bag that looks too small in his too-big hand. </span> <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Rey doesn’t know where the sudden urge comes from, to go after him. She feels cheated—unreasonably disappointed that he didn’t give her one of his smiles. She wants that from him.</span></p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">(And maybe just a tiny corner of the wanting is for his hand.)<br/>
</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">A box of tissues mysteriously shows up on her desk. At first she assumes it’s part of a company-wide initiative to combat hand-based nose wiping, but hers is the only desk that gets one. Maybe it’s an oddly passive-aggressive, slightly lame prank. She doesn’t mind; she feels very civilized gracefully depositing her used chewing gum into a tissue instead of orally launching it directly across her cubicle into the trash can. (It’s not quite as viscerally satisfying, though.)<br/>
</span>
</p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">One morning in the break room, twenty minutes into a fifteen-minute break, Rey and Finn are listening to Poe enthuse about his new dog when Ben comes in. </span> <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“He only peed inside five times yesterday, which is only two more times than the day before! Unrelated: can either of you recommend a good carpet cleaner?”</span></p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Ben interrupts, shooting a furtive glance at Rey. “Poe, is this really workplace-appropriate conversation?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Poe looks genuinely confused. “It’s against HR policy for me to talk about...my dog?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“You never know,” Ben says. “It might be a sore subject for someone. Not everyone likes dogs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“O...kay?” Poe responds. “I’ll consider in the future that descriptions of cute puppies might be...traumatic, for my friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Thank you,” Ben says gratefully. He pours himself a mug of coffee as the other three gawk silently. On his way out, he throws Rey a small, shy smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She smiles back bemusedly, and waits until he’s out of earshot to whirl around to Finn. “You saw that, right?! He <em>totally </em>smiled!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Finn just answers with a singsong “Brain tumor!”</span>
</p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">By the end of the week, Rey is actually willing to admit that maybe she <em>should</em> schedule a visit with a neurologist, because she thinks she sees Ben walk by her cubicle conspicuously holding what looks like a yoga mat. </span> <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">It can’t be a yoga mat, though, because the idea of Ben Solo and the concept of yoga are so fundamentally at odds that try as Rey might, she can’t imagine his limbs cooperating with what the practice would require of them. (She’d <em>very </em>much like to see him try, though. And not just for the comedic possibilities.)</span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Work is so hectic that her fifteen-minute break is actually only fifteen minutes, and she resigns herself shortly before five o'clock to the prospect of working late. </span> <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">The upside of the Friday evening work is that it entirely drives the bizarre hallucination out of her mind until she hears a throat cleared behind her. When she turns around her first reaction is relief: she isn’t dying after all! Ben is in fact holding a yoga mat. It’s lilac.</span></p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Oh hey, Rey,” he says in an exceptionally casual tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Hey, Ben.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He shifts the mat under his arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Going to yoga?”</span>
</p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Oh, yeah!” he exclaims with an air of studied surprise, like he wants her to think he’d completely forgotten about the mat he’s carrying. </span> <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“I haven’t been doing it long, but I really find that it helps keep me centered. Or balanced? Yeah.”</span></p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“That’s great, Ben, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He moves the mat from under one arm to the other. It peels off his skin like maybe it was stuck on with sweat. “Do you like yoga?” he asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“I’ve never done it,” Rey confesses. “I don’t know if I’d have the patience.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“You...<em>what</em>?” His level of shock seems fairly extreme for such an unremarkable confession. “You’ve never done yoga?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Nope,” she answers, unconcerned.<br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Oh, huh.” He stops and thinks for a minute. The silence stretches on and she’s debating introducing a new topic of conversation when he does it himself. “Have you ever been to Ohio?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“No,” she answers, “I can’t say that I have.” Though now that he mentions it, there’s something oddly familiar about the idea of Ohio...something connected to yoga somehow? And maybe puppies?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">When the realization hits her, she <em>gasps</em>. “The survey!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She stares at him slack-jawed as everything clicks into place. The smiling. The Machiavelli quote. The tissue box. The dog thing. “Genocide is bad.” <em>The yoga mat</em>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Ben, did you by chance read my responses to the employee engagement survey?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">It looks like it doesn’t even occur to him to lie. He reddens and nods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Wait,” she tries to recall. “Wasn’t there another question on it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Well...”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“BEN. You’re not going to offer me your <em>car</em>, are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“No!” he exclaims hastily. “But my uncle has a dealership, and I know a lot about cars, so if you’re looking for something with a good safety rating, I could help...” He trails off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Ben, I was 100% messing around with that survey. It was set up as a required step to log in and fill out your timesheet, and every answer was mandatory, and I do enjoy this job on the whole, but not enough to do it without getting paid. I made that stuff up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He deflates. “Oh.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She feels like she has to replay every minute of the month that’s passed since she took that survey, to know him. “You saw my responses? And you read the book I said I'd read?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Mm hmm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“You watched Pocahontas II?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“I did, and Rey, it was <em>so </em>bad, but I thought it was your favorite, so...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Yeah, it’s pretty widely accepted as one of the worst animated sequels of all time, I put it down as kind of a joke.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“I’m sorry,” he answers. “I’m not good at this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“At what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“At getting jokes. I think I take things too seriously.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She pauses and considers. “You brought me tissues because you thought I cried a lot. You smiled because you thought it was my mission in life to make people happy. You thought I...kick puppies?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“No,” he answers hurriedly, “I knew that was an exaggeration. But I thought maybe there was some reason you didn’t like dogs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“So you stood up to Poe, for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Now I feel stupid, Rey, I didn’t...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Don’t.” She cuts him off swiftly. “Don’t feel stupid. Ben, you...you bought a yoga mat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“The mat was the easy part, actually, it was hard to find a studio close by.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Wait. You actually started <em>taking </em>yoga?” There’s a warm sort of glow that begins somewhere in the region of her chest and gradually starts spreading to her extremities. “You...you did all that, for me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He looks perplexed by the question. “Well, of course.” His voice washes over her, and she only vaguely hears it. “I wanted to get to know you better. So of course I did the things that I thought you liked and would like to talk about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She stands up, slowly, and takes a step toward him. “Ask me a question.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“What?”<br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She takes another step. “You can ask me any question you want, and I’ll answer honestly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Oh!” His brow furrows as he thinks. “I don’t know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Another step. “Go on, Ben,” she prompts softly. “What do you want to ask?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He’s squeezing the yoga mat like an oversized stress ball. “I don’t know,” he repeats.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She takes another step, and she could count on one hand, probably, the number of inches left between them. “Yes, you do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He takes a deep breath. “Do you like me, a little?” He stands petrified, awaiting her answer.<br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She looks up into his eyes and she smiles. “I like you more than a little.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">All the tension in the world leaves his shoulders. The yoga mat is released from its death grip. “Okay.” He smiles. “That’s good. Okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Do you want to ask me another question?” she asks, softly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">He gulps. “Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Ask me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“I want to kiss you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She smiles. “That’s not a question.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Oh sorry, do you...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">She cuts him off with her mouth. Her arms loop over his shoulders, and the yoga mat falls on her foot as his hands find her back. She glues herself to him and still can’t get close enough. His touch is everything, and the solid warmth of his body, and the way he kisses: unpracticed and enthusiastic and like he’ll never, ever tire of her lips. It's everything, and then some.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">When she finally pulls back to breathe, he automatically tries to follow, as if he’s forgotten that he too needs oxygen. Or maybe it’s just that he doesn’t need it right now as much as he needs her. He draws back and gives her the smile that she wanted. That she <em>always </em>wants, she realizes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><em>Cherished</em>. The long-unused word comes to mind. No one has ever made her feel cherished, in the way that he is now, holding her carefully in his arms like she’s something precious.<br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Can I ask <em>you </em>a question?” she murmurs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“Of course,” he smiles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“I want to kiss you again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">“That’s not a ques— OH.” It takes him a second, but he gets there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">And she’s right there waiting.</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope this made you smile! 😊 I post other drabbles and such on <a href="https://twitter.com/CeliaAnd2">Twitter</a> if you'd like to come visit! 💛</p></blockquote></div></div>
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